With over 14,000 shares on Facebook alone, this article from Raptitude received more social media love than most blogs see in an entire year of publishing.

What made it so shareable? Let’s analyze it and see…

Headline Type: List Post

Infectious Agents: Awe | Anger | Surprise | Shock | Fear | Anxiety

“Belief-Shaking”: Right away, this headline challenges you by stating its content will shake your beliefs. This may make you angry. Or fill you with a sense of awe. It might even make you fearful.

Having your beliefs shaken, questioned, maybe even crushed, can make you fearful because your beliefs are deeply personal. They are a big part of what makes you what, and who, you are.

“Ruthless”: This word conjures up an image of someone who doesn’t care. A renegade. A gangster. A person without mercy or regard for others.

“Nonconformist”: This word conjures up an image of someone unafraid and unconventional, doing what they want and changing the world in the process while battling against the norm. We love individuals like these, individuals who say and do things we want to do but feel unable.

Chris Guillebeau built his entire online business on being Nonconformist, such is its appeal.

Key Takeaway: Write a headline that challenges the reader, dispels myths, or presents an unconventional opinion.

Viral Headline #2: “How To Hit 1,000,000 Visitors in a Year of Blogging”

“1,000,000 visitors!”: Wow! A promise of huge benefit: discover how to get 1 MILLION visitors. Who doesn’t want to know how to get 1,000,000 visitors? Even if you’re skeptical, you want to click, right?

“In a year”: This promises you a desirable deadline: 1 year.

“Blogging”: This pinpoints its target audience and their biggest desire.

This headline creates curiosity: whatever your feelings about the facts inside this headline, you want to read it, right?

Viral Headline #6: “106 Excuses That Stop You From Ever Being Great”

“106”: A big number that makes those “excuses” look all the more challenging because you might want to argue that you don’t have that many.

“Excuses”: This word is a challenge. You may not like to be told you’re making excuses but this headline challenges you with the fact that you probably are.

“Prevent you from ever becoming great”: Another challenge. This time a big one: If you don’t overcome these excuses, your dreams of being great, of becoming someone who matters, who changes lives, a non-conformist even, will never happen.

Some of the most popular, most viral headlines, challenge people to deny or accept the truth as they know it.

Key Takeaway: Laying down a challenge with your headline can make your message roar. Just make sure you have something worth reading after the headline, or people will feel cheated.

Viral Headline #7: “Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants”

This headline shows how humor and curiosity can make a headline go viral.

A popular blogger reveals their guilty secret… or do they? (As it turns out, the real surprise isn’t the fact that this blogger wears women’s underpants, but the fact that “he” is actually a woman.)

“Wears women’s underpants”:What!? You either laugh. Or curl your lip in disgust. Either way, you want to read about it, right?

This headline takes the gossip nature of tabloid and reality shows and gives their viral power to a blog post headline.

Key Takeaway: Gossip is contagious, so why not use it in your headline? Just make sure to fulfill your promise of revealing something interesting to read… even if it’s not precisely what the headline leads you to believe.

This headline’s viral success is off the scale with 419,000 shares on Facebook and over 22,000 pins on Pinterest.

Headline Type: List Post

Infectious Agents: Awe | Joy

“Settings, Techniques”: These are attention-grabbing words for anyone interested in photography and using a camera or getting better at using a camera.

“Rules”: This is a “trigger” word – it suggests that these are the only way to become better (and accepted) by other photographers. It says that this post gives information that will make you acceptable in the photography field among other, possibly more experienced, photographers.

“All”: Implies that if you don’t know what these settings, techniques and rules are, you’ll be left outside the group (and possibly feel a little dumb too).

“New”: This is a power word. This is a word that inspires strong emotion or action in readers. Copywriters have used “new” as one of the key words they use to inspire people who want to be first in line.

“New” in this headline also attracts beginner photographers and camera enthusiasts.

Key Takeaway: Get to know the power words in your niche or industry and use them. Don’t try to get fancy or clever– keeping your headline simple and to-the-point is often the best way to get attention.

Viral Headline #11: “44 Social Media Tools Recommended By The Pros”

“44”: That’s a long list. This increases its usefulness and quality in readers minds, even before they read the post itself.

“Social Media Tools”: This is a key phrase that gets a lot of searches because it’s a “hot topic.”

“Recommend by the Pros”: These words give this headline authority and impact because they tell people that these are not just any social media tools. They are what the pros, the authorities, the influencers, the successful social media experts use. And, if you use them too, you’ll not only get the success enjoyed by the pros, but you’ll be one of them too.

Key Takeaway: Find a hot topic in your field and add authority by getting the pros to reveal what they do to succeed.

“5”: Sometimes a short list can sometimes appear more important than a longer list because people think that there’s no “fluff”, and only the really important points were included.

“Twitter tools”: Anyone interested in getting most value out of Twitter are going to want to read this.

“Boost”: This is a power word – it suggests this post is going to maximize your productivity (and thereby save you time).

“Productivity”: Anyone wanting to make most of their time (and stop wasting it trying to make Twitter work for them) is going to be interested in this post.

Key Takeaway: Link “hot topics” or power words to a big benefit that solves a problem for your readers.

Viral Headline #13: “6 Ways to Use Short Video for Social Marketing”

With 7,000 tweets and over 15,000 total shares, this headline shows what going viral means.

Headline Type: List Post

Infectious Agents: Awe | Joy

“6”: Subconsciously, people see these “6” as being the most important, useful, or the best.

“Use”: Reassures readers that these “ways” work and you will actually see results.

“Short video”: Video is becoming a popular tool for bloggers and marketers alike. People also like watching videos (but they don’t always have time), and short videos implies they get details they want, without taking up too much of their time to do so.

“Social marketing”: This is another “hot topic” for a viral headlines because anyone who wants to make money online wants (and needs) to know how to make social marketing and social media work for them.

Key Takeaway: Taking a topic that everyone is writing about and giving it extra juice by combining it with another “hot topic” can increase your headline’s viral power.

Viral Headline #14: “Some Practical Thoughts On Suicide”

Controversial and taboo topics can make headlines go viral and this post by Tim Ferris with over 10,000 likes on Facebook proves it.

Headline Type: Heart-to-Heart

Infectious Agents: Awe | Shock | Fear

“Some”: This word used in this context is a power word because it suggests the essential thoughts. The thoughts that matter.

“Practical”: In this context, this is also a power word because it makes people feel that this is a serious post, with actionable steps. In a topic that is highly emotional, personal and little talked about but which affects many people, they are probably looking for practical advice they can feel comfortable about reading and accepting.

This headline also brings people together in a particular group: people who recognize the effects of suicide. Personal stories of triumph over adversity, or struggles with mental health, physical health or life’s dark places can help many people unite and come together in a way that they may not have been able to do in their off-line lives.

Key Takeaway: Personal stories, controversy and taboo topics work. They create curiosity for many, and for others they draw upon raw emotions.

“Importance”: This says, “You need to read this.” People want to be seen as being ahead of the game.

“Changing mediums”: Changing the way you do things – this is a challenge to people. People like to be seen as living against the norm, to be nonconformist and free of rules.

“Why”: This is a power word. It offers an answer to your questions, “Why is this happening to me?”, or “Why can’t I do what I want to do?”.

“Polymaths”: This evokes curiosity – what the heck does “Polymaths” mean? Or maybe you do know what it means, and sharing this post shows that you are a part of the elite group who does know what it means. It also just sounds “cool”. (Cool is another infectious agent from Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”.)

As Derek Sivers put it: “proudly exclude people”, because this can get your headline seen by more people who will really like it and get most impact out of it.

Key takeaway: Exclusivity can be contagious, especially in headlines, because it plays on our need for respect.

This headline by James Clear with over 29,000 shares on Facebook again uses what I like to call the “Derek Sivers Exclusion Technique”.

Headline Type: Heart-to-Heart

Infectious Agents: Awe | Surprise | Shock

“The Diderot Effect”: This introduces curiosity – what is The Diderot Effect? How does it effect me? Should I care? People want to know.

And because of its unique subject, people want to share it, either to be seen to be in the know or because it piqued their curiosity.

“Why”: Here’s that power word challenging people again.

“Don’t need”: This is a direct challenge to everyone who sees it because it suggests that you’re either greedy, disillusioned, or spoilt.

“And what to do about it”: Solutions always favor attention by saying, “Hey! There’s hope for you yet. And here it is.”

This headline also speaks to those interested in minimalism and simplicity.

Key Takeaway: Naming your solution in your headline can increase its viral power. If your solution doesn’t have a fancy name, then give it one: a name increases the perceived value of your solution and incites curiosity.

“Make Good Employees Quit”: If you can relate as a disgruntled employee, this teases you with the possibility that you’re not wrong, your boss is the problem.

This headline sets up a division between managers and employees that is bound to get a response. Either, you knew it all along so you share this headline as proof. Or you know it’s not true and you share it as another way “bad” employees blame managers instead of themselves.

Key takeaway: Confirming people’s beliefs can be as powerful a tactic as challenging them, because people have a strong desire to be proven right.

“Definitive”: This is a power word. It stamps its authority on the matter. It says this guide is the only guide you’ll ever need.

“10,273-word”:10,273-words? Wow! Must mean there’s a lot of detail and information in it. The large number is what gives this headline authority.

Key Takeaway: Long posts can be big hits with readers (as Neil Patel found out when his 4,000+ word blog posts helped him grow his blog to over 100,000 visitors per month).

So what can we learn from 21 viral headlines? Out of the 21 headlines…

9 are List Posts

7 are Heart-to-Hearts

3 are How-tos

2 are Resources

1 is a Question

List Posts and Heart-to-Hearts are really popular because they work really well. Just remember to include infectious agents, words that grab attention, stir up emotions, and appeal to people’s deep needs and desires.

Know your audience through and through, and crafting a winning headline becomes so much easier.

Step 2. Know where your audience hangs out.

What is your audience’s favorite social media platform? You’ll notice that some of these viral headlines got more shares on one social media platform versus another. In some cases, that’s because some headlines are better suited to one platform over another.

So before you write your headline, figure out where your audience hangs out and what your best sources of traffic are. Armed with that information, some unique, new headline ideas may come to you.

Step 3. Discover your audience’s infectious agents.

To find your audience’s infectious agents, follow them on social media and take note of what they’re sharing. Look for patterns in the words or phrases that keep recurring in topics, links, headlines, they share most.

That way, you’ll know exactly which emotions to hit with your headline.

Step 4. Layer in those infectious agents.

It’s OK to start with something bland. Just keep working on your headline by layering in your infectious agents, and then eventually you’ll have a winner.

See how much better the headline got after adding in more infectious agents? That wasn’t so hard, was it?

Conclusion

Writing viral headlines isn’t rocket science: it just takes an understanding of what causes people to share.

The critical point to remember is that people share content because of what it shows about them. Start with a good base (one of the 5 types of viral headlines) and then layer in your infectious agents (remembering to make use of Maslow’s needs) to make them truly irresistible.

By modeling these 21 examples, you can craft your own viral-worthy headlines, and you’ll be well on your way to enjoying their success.

Which was your favorite viral headline? Why? Let us know in the comments below!

Tom Southern is a blog coach. He helps people take the frustration out of getting traffic and promoting their content. Download his new Power Words For Viral Headlines: a quick guide to writing headlines that get clicked, liked and shared.

Comments

Great post, Tom. I love the analytical approach to all these headlines. It really helps to strip them back to bare bones and show us exactly what they’re made of and why they work so well. Thanks for putting in all that hard work to give us such a useful headline tool to work with. This one’s definitely a keeper.
Cheers, Mel

Thanks for stopping by to add your comment. It’s great to see you here.

Yes, headlines that work this well have all been carefully thought through first, especially when it comes to who the intended audience is that’s going to be most
attracted to them.

That’s always a must-do when it comes to writing any headline: knowing who’s most likely to see it? (If you get it right, it’ll be people who are most actively searching for answers your headline promises.

Great to know you found this useful and one you’ll keep in your resources swipe-file.

Hey there Tom! Wowza what a jam packed…resource filled article about writing viral headlines! As a blogger I know all too well how important it is to pay close atrention to headlines in blog posts as they seriously can make or break whether or not a post gets skipped or read.

Now making content go viral is another ball game for sure. Im going to bookmark this article for future reference for sure as a go to resource for writing viral headlines for my blog posts.

Hi Tom,
It is very important to write catchy headlines so that the content could go viral. I must must say that it was a long post but worth reading and helped me to learn some things.
Thanks for sharing.

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